ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is to describe and evaluate the nineteenth century antecedents of the juvenile court that developed at the beginning of the twentieth century. Was the juvenile court which began in 1899 in Cook County, Illinois, and which spread rapidly through the rest of the United States in the early part of the twentieth century, a radically new and innovative departure from the past? Or, was the new juvenile court similar in many ways to past practices and institutions but with the
parens patriae
power of the state in a new location? It is difficult to gain a full historical picture of the new institution
of the juvenile court and its antecedents with regard to its actual administration and impact on the people over which it exercised
jurisdiction. A full historical study of the powerless in our society is usually unavailable. The available literature upon which this chapter is based is derived from studies of what is available such as statutes, cases, legislative histories, and historical accounts of individuals and institutions and so on, which do not give a full picture. This same literature does not cover everything that was going on throughout the United States but tends to focus on those states and major cities which led the way, such as New York, Boston, Chicago, and Philadelphia. Consequently, the picture is not a full one but is mostly an account of what was happening in some of America’s major cities. Perhaps this is because these were the places where major social problems, such as crime and poverty, were most noticeable.
